Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
I think that needs to be dropped. Why on earth does someone who makes over $70,000/year need OAS at all? Almost $20,000/year more than the average salary in Canada.
Clawback begins at $35,000....and goes until it reaches the average salary in Canada. Maybe $5,000 more than that, and after that you receive nothing.
From there I would seriously begin phasing it out. This program should be designed to help the 'needy'....as in the POOR. Not those that have no excuse for not having put money away to retire on. The taxpayer shouldn't be on the hook for them.
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Someone who makes hundreds of thousands a year would still think they could use OAS. A dollar is a dollar. They even try to arrange their income so it legally appears they qualify in order to capture it.
Similarly, everyone applies for CPP, even if they have corporate pensions of hundreds of thousands a year. They feel they paid into it and are entitled to the benefit.
Secondly, a lot of those people with greater than $70,000 in income in retirement probably worked pretty hard to position themselves to get there. My experience is that a great many millionaires are fairly common folk who simply accumulated wealth through time . . . . and a big chunk of them believe those who didn't have the same attitude were simply selfish and imprudent and don't deserve a lot of sympathy.
If you're poor after a lifetime of effort, you've probably earned it.
So, I don't think you should be arguing this on the basis of the wealthier, smarter people not needing the money. You won't get a lot of sympathy necessarily.
I'd argue the point on a humanitarian basis - we don't want little old ladies in our Society eating cat food to survive - and the fact its probably cheaper to bring these people up to a certain, sustainable income level than it is to pay for other social services that arise out of poverty.
My two cents.
On TFSA's . . . . greatest thing since sliced bread. Just heard this morning about someone out east with $800,000 in their TFSA, putting warrants into the TFSA and then exercising them. Apparently that loophole has been closed.
I think TFSA's in their present form will be around a long, long time. It encourages people to save and to prepare themselves for retirement as opposed to being short-sighted, indulgent idiots and needing government to help them later on.
Not sure how that will all work out because I think there will always be a certain, fairly high, percentage of the population that will never save a dime in their lifetimes. Like my brother.
Cowperson